by Isaiah J. Poole | Apr 27, 2011 | Blog
Some House Republicans are responding to the outrage over their vote in favor of turning Medicare into a private insurance racket in sadly predictable fashion, reports The Huffington Post's Sam Stein: They're ducking tough questions from their constituents. But Senate...
by Terrance Heath | Apr 27, 2011 | Blog
OK. I think I understand why he did it. At first I didn't think Obama's release of his long form birth certificate would do him much good. But now I'm beginning to think the president knows exactly what he's doing, how it could help him, and how it can potentially...
by Mary Bottari | Apr 27, 2011 | Blog
Remember when the fight broke out in Wisconsin over the right to collectively bargain and President Obama and a phalanx of national democratic leaders spread out across the country fighting for the rights of American workers? Right, we don't remember that...
by Dave Johnson | Apr 27, 2011 | Blog
The Republican plan for Medicare "cuts government spending" by shifting the cost of old-age health care directly to the middle class and poor. (I’ll explain below.) Here’s the thing: someone is going to get that $34 trillion. (I’ll explain below.) And that someone...
by Bill Scher | Apr 27, 2011 | Uncategorized
Each morning, Bill Scher and Terrance Heath serve up what progressives need to effect change on the kitchen-table issues families face: jobs, health care, green energy, financial reform, affordable education and retirement security. MORNING MESSAGE: John Walsh Must...
by Richard Eskow | Apr 27, 2011 | Blog
Regulatory agencies exist to protect the public, not the corporations they regulate. The head of the Office of Comptroller of the Currency doesn't seem to understand that. But that's not why John Walsh needs to resign. The OCC was created to stabilize the economy,...
by Greg Colvin | Apr 26, 2011 | Blog
Among those who feel the only way to overcome the Citizens United decision, which opened the door to unlimited corporate spending on elections, is to amend the U.S. Constitution, the question on everyone’s mind is: “So what’s the language?” I offered a version of my...
by Dave Johnson | Apr 26, 2011 | Blog
In Washington state workers are allowed to organize and form unions so they can win good wages and benefits. In "right-to-work" states like South Carolina, though, the government sides with big companies against their workers. (They used to have even harsher...
by | Apr 26, 2011 | Blog
To Dodger fans like me and mine, this has been an embarrassing and horrifying season, and it has nothing to do with what's going on on the field. The horrifying part was the attack on a Giants fan by psychotic gang members on opening days, of course. The embarrassing...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Apr 26, 2011 | Blog
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy Benton Harbor, Mich., is a small community of about 10,000 people that has had big problems for decades. It's a virtually all-black town where the median income is less than $17,500 and the...
by Dave Johnson | Apr 26, 2011 | Blog, Economy
There is a deficit of jobs AND the deficit is jobs. The public is so much smarter than the geniuses in DC. Washington talks about the deficit but the public knows that the deficit is jobs. That huge deficit jump to over a trillion that happened in Bush's last budget...
by Bill Scher | Apr 26, 2011 | Blog
Several Republican congresspeople have faced critical receptions at town halls in their home districts after voting for a budget that dismantles Medicare. But the media coverage is nothing like what we saw in August 2009 when much of the media treated lobbyist-backed...
by Terrance Heath | Apr 26, 2011 | Blog
"What do we think? What do we know? What can we prove?" That's a quote from "And the Band Played On," HBO's adaptation of Randy Shilts' book about the beginnings of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. It's the mantra of Centers for Disease Control...
by Bill Scher | Apr 26, 2011 | Blog, Rick Perlstein
Each morning, Bill Scher and Terrance Heath serve up what progressives need to effect change on the kitchen-table issues families face: jobs, health care, green energy, financial reform, affordable education and retirement security. MORNING MESSAGE: An Opposition...
by Richard Eskow | Apr 26, 2011 | Blog, Financial Reform
Only two budget proposals are being 'taken seriously' in Washington right now. One adopts the rhetoric of "austerity economics," that grab-bag of right-wing misconceptions that's weakened the British economy and wounded its ruling coalition. The other comes from the...
by Dave Johnson | Apr 25, 2011 | Blog
Thursday is a day of action. Last week I wrote about Don't Make Us Work 'Till We Die! There are Don't Make Us Work 'Till We Die! events this Thursday, April 28. Click here to find an event near you. The Strengthen Social Security campaign has launched Don't Make Us...
by | Apr 25, 2011 | Blog
Ever since Social Security became the law over 75 years ago, there have been conservatives who wanted to kill it, finding the very notion that elderly or disabled people should retain any dignity or independence after their productive years have passed anathema. If...
by Sam Pizzigati | Apr 25, 2011 | Blog
A consumer alert for soccer moms and doting granddads: Outrageous compensation rewards give corporate executives an incentive to behave outrageously — against you! The story behind the sad demise of a beloved camera. We’ve come to expect, here early in the 21st...
by Bill Scher | Apr 25, 2011 | Uncategorized
Each morning, Bill Scher and Terrance Heath serve up what progressives need to effect change on the kitchen-table issues families face: jobs, health care, green energy, financial reform, affordable education and retirement security. MORNING MESSAGE: Will The Media...
by Dave Johnson | Apr 22, 2011 | Blog
Note - see action updates below. Members of Congress are holding local town hall meetings now and into next week, and Republicans are hearing from constituents angry that they voted to privatize Medicare to pay for even more tax cuts for the rich and corporations....
by Isaiah J. Poole | Apr 22, 2011 | Blog
Just in time for Easter, the movie version of "Atlas Shrugged" is poised to be shown in an expanding number of theaters. And, as Ayn Rand would be the first to admit, you could not set up a sharper clash of world views. There is Jesus Christ, who, the apostle Paul...
by Terrance Heath | Apr 22, 2011 | Blog
What happens to a dream deferred? …Maybe it just sags like a heavy load. Or does it explode? ~ Langston Hughes, "Harlem" Dreams figure prominently in the poetry of Langston Hughes; not just in "Harlem," but poems like "Dreams" and...
by Bill Scher | Apr 22, 2011 | Uncategorized
Each morning, Bill Scher and Terrance Heath serve up what progressives need to effect change on the kitchen-table issues families face: jobs, health care, green energy, financial reform, affordable education and retirement security. MORNING MESSAGE: (Debt) Trigger...
by Richard Eskow | Apr 22, 2011 | Blog
Suddenly Washington is filled with proposals for 'debt triggers,' policy devices that would force spending cuts if arbitrary targets aren't met in the future. Everybody's either got one or wants one: the President, the Republicans, the Gang of Six, and all the usual...
by Dave Johnson | Apr 21, 2011 | Blog
There was a time on this country when We, the People were in charge, and our government worked for us. Through our government we did things for each other and for our economy, and when we had economic success we paid back toward more such investment. Things are...
by Richard Eskow | Apr 21, 2011 | Blog
A new video was released today by the folks at Strengthen Social Security to highlight the absurdity of today’s political debate about "entitlement programs," and specifically to address proposals that would raise the retirement age. Social Security and Medicare have...
by Josh Ney | Apr 21, 2011 | Blog
With Congress in recess, members of Congress are holding town hall meetings all across the country. That makes now a good opportunity to tell your congressman or senator what is on your mind about jobs, the economy, health care, taxes—and most importantly, the...
by Bill Scher | Apr 21, 2011 | Uncategorized
Each morning, Bill Scher and Terrance Heath serve up what progressives need to effect change on the kitchen-table issues families face: jobs, health care, green energy, financial reform, affordable education and retirement security. MORNING MESSAGE: When Moderation...
by Richard Eskow | Apr 21, 2011 | Blog
Historians of the future may one day write that the death of the New Deal began this year. If so, it goes without saying that corrupt forces like the Chamber of Commerce will be a big part of the story. So will billionaire ideologues like Pete Peterson, and greedy...
by Richard Eskow | Apr 20, 2011 | Blog
It's almost like they had a plan. The right-wing has been trying to dismantle the New Deal since its inception, but after decades of failure it's found a new path to success. They're already persuaded quite a few Democrats to support the first steps toward dismantling...
by Terrance Heath | Apr 20, 2011 | Blog
Langston Hughes once asked, "What happens to a dream deferred?"; a rhetorical question answered with still more questions. The current economic crisis raises a similar question: What's happened to the American Dream? According to a recent survey, less than...
by Bill Scher | Apr 20, 2011 | Blog
Today on ABC's Good Morning America, House Tea Party Caucus founder Rep. Michele Bachmann explicitly voiced what many conservatives only mutter under their breath. She's for raising taxes ... just only on the poor and the middle-class. When asked by ABC's George...
by | Apr 20, 2011 | Blog
The following was originally published at UnemployedWorkers.org Legislators in several states have recently displayed a shameful eagerness to hold unemployment benefits hostage as a means of enacting measures to advance an anti-middle-class agenda and undermine key...
by Bill Scher | Apr 20, 2011 | Uncategorized
Each morning, Bill Scher and Terrance Heath serve up what progressives need to effect change on the kitchen-table issues families face: jobs, health care, green energy, financial reform, affordable education and retirement security. MORNING MESSAGE: GOP Rings Up...
by Dave Johnson | Apr 19, 2011 | Blog, Making it in America
Donald Trump is getting traction. He is talking about trade, jobs, China, manufacturing, China, jobs, China and China -- and it is resonating with a public sick of being told to ignore what they can see in front of their faces. "Nobody, other than OPEC, is ripping off...
by Scott Hochberg | Apr 19, 2011 | Blog
Amidst the furor over Rep. Paul Ryan’s new budget proposal, advocates for strong retirement programs appear to be in a bind. On one hand, Ryan subjects Medicare and Medicaid to scathing cuts and a restructuring agenda so radical that they could no longer be called...
by Terrance Heath | Apr 19, 2011 | Blog
What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up Like a raisin in the sun? Or fester like a sore-- And then run? … ~ Langton Hughes, "Harlem" Whose Dream? Since Hughes wrote "Harlem" in 1951, literary critics have tried to identify the dream Hughes...
by Bill Scher | Apr 19, 2011 | Blog
Some House Republicans, like Rep. Michele Bachmann, are opposed to raising our debt limit under any circumstances. Others, including Speaker Boehner, says they will refuse to raise the debt limit unless the White House and Senate accept their proposed painful cuts on...
by Richard Eskow | Apr 19, 2011 | Blog, Financial Reform
It should have been the lead story from coast to coast: A bipartisan panel of senators, including some of that body's most conservative members, released a damning report that slammed bankers, regulators and ratings agencies—and they made it clear that they'd like to...
by Mary Bottari | Apr 19, 2011 | Blog
Tax Day was approaching and the righties were out to denigrate government workers and government spending. Sarah Palin, former Governor of Alaska, who quit her job in 2009, headlined a rally in Madison, Wisconsin, bought and paid for by the front-group [[Americans for...
